Craig Bellamy could call time on Wales after Gary Speed tribute game against Costa Rica

Craig Bellamy will take the hand of one of Gary Speed’s sons, Ed, on Wednesday
evening, guide the youngster on to the Cardiff City Stadium turf amid tears
and applause and then lead Wales into action in one final emotional tribute
to one of his best friends, a nation’s sporting hero.

Raring to go: Liverpool's Craig Bellamy will lead Wales against Costa Rica in a tribute match for Gary SpeedPhoto: PA

And if it is the last time that Bellamy plays for his country as many suspect, nothing will feel more fitting than that the 32-year-old Liverpool striker should be the one to lead the side out against Costa Rica in the memorial international to honour the memory of his mate Speed, whose death at 42 three months ago so numbed the country.

Bellamy feels so emotional about the captaincy honour that he was too choked to talk about it publicly on the eve of the game in Cardiff, but when he was offered the armband, he can hardly have felt more proud.

He is a close friend of the Speed family and 14-year-old Ed, a promising player on Wrexham’s books, adores him.

With Aaron Ramsey, the captain, injured, Ashley Williams, his deputy, made the magnanimous gesture of stepping aside to allow Bellamy to lead the side in what could be his final international.

It is, though, a measure of how eagerly Ramsey, along with every Welsh player, still wanted to be involved that, while being watched from the stands by Speed’s widow Louise, the young Arsenal player will also walk out into the stadium with the Speeds’ younger teenage son Tom while Bellamy accompanies Ed.

Earlier, Speed’s father Roger plans to visit the Welsh dressing room in the minutes before the game to talk to the players and thank them, while outside, the crowd, which FA of Wales officials hope will fill out the 27,000-capacity stadium, will watch a giant screen, showing videos of Speed in his playing heyday as Wales’s most capped outfielder.

Some of football’s great names, from Alan Shearer to Patrick Vieira, will attend, along with sporting celebrities such as Ian Botham and Joe Calzaghe, while more than 80 Welsh internationals will pay their tributes on the pitch at half-time.

Rock band Super Furry Animals and a Welsh male-voice choir will try to raise the pre-match mood on what organisers want to make a night of celebration and there will be a minute’s applause to remember Speed.

Then, with what could only ever be an afterthought on a night like this, a game of football will break out.

Speed’s successor Chris Coleman, who will be on the bench but will leave the main managerial duties for the night to his assistant Osian Roberts, concedes it is bound to be a strange, difficult evening for everyone to cope with.

Yes, he wants to win the international, carrying on the momentum of Speed’s impressive reign, but it cannot help but be a uniquely poignant evening when everyone is gazing back and distracted rather than surging forward.

It helps that he is sure he knows what Speed would have wanted.

“I know this man as well as anybody. He’d want us to win. He’d want us to keep going where he left off.”

On Monday, the players gathered at their hotel in Cardiff Bay and met up to remember Speed in a special meeting. They watched a video of him and Roberts gave the chance for everyone to talk about their old boss if they wanted.

“You could feel the togetherness and the warmth,” revealed Coleman. “We needed to do it. It was touching. It was emotional as well.”

No one will be more emotional than Bellamy. He will win his 68th cap but, after an international career spanning 14 years, he is considering his future in the wake of last week’s resignation of Raymond Verheijen, a coach he admired.

The Dutchman departed by accusing FAW of “political and destructive games” but Coleman insisted on Tuesday that it did not feel the right time to talk about that issue.

Yet Coleman reiterated how keen he is to see Bellamy on board for the forthcoming World Cup campaign.

“Personally? I want Craig to stay and hope he does. I will do my best to keep him because we’re a better team and a better squad with him about.

“But effectively it will be down to whatever he wants. I don’t want to push him. I have to try and put myself in Craig’s shoes. He has known Gary a long time and was very close to him; he came out of retirement for Gary. And now he’s not here so it’s not an easy one for Craig.

"I won’t take it to heart if he comes out and says that he won’t carry on. I will understand but I hope that’s not the situation.”